SEEK Employment Snapshot - Different rates of recovery across the states

This snapshot complements the SEEK Employment Trends report that is released monthly. SEEK will publish regular insights based on job ad movements compared to a pre-COVID baseline of February 2020.

 

Key insights (weeks 33 & 34 compared to February 2020):

  • SEEK job ads in the last fortnight are at 71% of pre-COVID levels

  • Job ad volumes continue to recover in most states and territories with Tasmania and Northern Territory passing pre-COVID levels

  • Job ads in Victoria are at 45% of pre-COVID levels but are 59% higher than the wave 1 low point in April

  • Regional Australia (97% of pre-COVID levels) is outperforming metro areas (66% of pre-COVID levels) due to a lower proportion of Professional Services roles which is the slowest sector to recover across Australia

TWO RATES OF RECOVERY ACROSS THE STATES

Kendra Banks, Managing Director, SEEK ANZ comments: “In the fortnight ended 23 August 2020, job ad volumes across Australia were 71% of pre-COVID levels. For the first time since restrictions were initially imposed, we have seen some states surpass pre-COVID levels and other states not too far away. Northern Territory and Tasmania have both exceeded pre-COVID levels meaning there are now more jobs on seek.com.au in these states than there were before COVID hit in February.

“In other welcome news, job ads in Western Australia and South Australia are very close to reaching pre-COVID levels with 99% and 96% respectively.

“On the other end of the scale, Victoria continues to be impacted by the stage 4 restrictions. The state represents about a fifth of the total job ads for Australia and has a significant impact on the nation's job ad comparison figure. Since the re-introduction of restrictions in metropolitan Melbourne, we have seen a decline in job ads, but this has not been as severe as what we saw in March and April. The number of job ads were 45% of pre-COVID levels, but 59% higher than the low point in April. The fact that job advertising volumes have not declined as much during this second round of restrictions is testament to the resilience and adaptability of business owners, who are being innovative and trying to find ways to continue to operate.

“New South Wales has the largest labour market and has 69% of pre-COVID levels. This is more than double (108%) the number of jobs available than the low point in April.”

This table shows the job ad volumes by state for the last two weeks, the previous two weeks and the percentage difference.

Job ad volume compared to pre-COVID levels

Location

Last fortnight

(weeks 33 & 34)

Previous fortnight

(weeks 31 & 32)

Tasmania

101%

94%

Northern Territory

101%

100%

Western Australia

99%

96%

South Australia

96%

98%

Queensland

84%

86%

Australian Capital Territory

78%

76%

New South Wales

70%

69%

Victoria

45%

47%

FIGURE ONE: SEEK new job ads by state for 2020

METRO vs REGIONAL

Comparing regional job ad recovery against metro areas we can see that in all sectors regional job ads are outperforming their metro equivalents. The main driver for this difference is that regional areas have a lower proportion of Professional Services roles which have been slower to recover. Professional Services make up about 8% of the total job ads in regional areas, whereas it contributes about a quarter to a third of roles in metro areas.  

Professional Services includes roles in Accounting, Human Resources & Recruitment, Marketing & Communications, Banking & Financial Services, Legal, Science & Technology, Consulting & Strategy, Information & Communication Technology and Insurance & Superannuation.


FIGURE TWO: SEEK job ads nationally classified as regional or metro compared to pre-COVID levels and the sector breakdowns for weeks 33 & 34

STATE BREAKDOWN OF REGIONAL vs METRO BY SECTOR

The following table shows, for the last two weeks: (1) job ad volumes compared to pre-COVID levels in metro and regional areas across the five sector types; and (2) the gap between metro and regional areas for each of these sectors. Information for New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia has been presented. There are insufficient sample sizes to provide the same information for the other states over a two-week period.

NSW

VIC

QLD

WA

All sectors

Metro

63%

42%

84%

95%

Regional

99%

71%

105%

109%

Public Sector

Metro

90%

65%

84%

107%

Regional

105%

90%

105%

130%

Industrial

Metro

101%

57%

102%

99%

Regional

98%

80%

83%

99%

Construction

Metro

62%

32%

87%

107%

Regional

104%

73%

99%

115%

Consumer Services

Metro

50%

23%

82%

98%

Regional

98%

41%

107%

135%

Professional Services

Metro

55%

44%

56%

66%

Regional

71%

61%

84%

n/a

                * n/a means that the data sample is too small for comparison